Monday, June 2, 2008

Here's A Favorite From Neruda

If You Forget Me

I want you to know one thing
You know how this is
If I look at the crystal moon
at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window
If I touch near the fire the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log.

Everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists:
aromas, light, metals, or little boats that sail towards
those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well now, if little by little you stop loving me,
I shall stop loving you, little by little.

If suddenly you forget me, do not look for me
For I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think at long and mad the wind banners
that passes through my life and
you decide to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember than on that day, at that hour,
I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land.

But if each day each hour
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness.
If each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms without leaving mine.

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